


Animal Instincts

by p_eon_y



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Polyamory, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:00:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26493040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/p_eon_y/pseuds/p_eon_y
Summary: Your birthday had come and gone.You were hoping this year would be it, the year you finally got your soul marking.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Reader, Han Jisung/Reader, Hwang Hyunjin/Reader, Kim Seungmin/Reader, Lee Felix/Reader, Lee Minho/Reader, Seo Changbin/Reader, Yang Jeongin/Reader
Comments: 3
Kudos: 40





	Animal Instincts

Your birthday had come and gone.  
You were hoping this year would be it, the year you finally got your soul markings. 23 years old now, and the norm was for people to get them on their 21st birthday. 

______

You remembered that day bitterly as you chewed slowly on a slice of cake your mom and best friend were nice enough to bring over to your apartment.  
You had been amped up the entire night before, too excited to sleep but eventually succumbing to it as the melatonin you took as an after thought kicked in.  
The next morning you bolted upright, kicking the blankets off to scurry over to the full-length mirror across the room. You studied yourself carefully, turning this way and that scrutinizing over every detail of yourself before your excited face dropped. 

Nothing.  
There was actually nothing.  
You threw the door to your room open and yelled for your parents as you barreled down the hallway into the kitchen where they were sitting enjoying what was now lunch. They both looked up upon your entrance, confused looks plastered on their faces. 

“I can’t find it.” You whined loudly, a trait definitely not becoming of your now ‘adult‘ age. 

“Can’t find what sweetheart?” Your mom said softly as she looked you over with concern.

“MY MARK MOM, IT’S NOT HERE!” you pulled at your shirt tugging it this way and that as you exclaimed. 

Your mom had given you a worried look before pushing you out of the kitchen back down the hall to your room, trailing close behind. She shut the door quietly and you two had then begun another extensive search of your body looking everywhere you could think of. 

At the end of it you both had taken to just sitting on your bed. You sighed dejectedly. 

“Now, y/n you know this isn’t the end of the world. Your mark might be invisible, or your soulmate might not even be your age.” She ran a hand over your head before you flopped backwards onto your pillows with a loud exasperated sigh. 

She chuckled lightly at your antics and soothed “Just give it time sweetie. If it’s not here now I’m sure it will be soon.”

______

You drop your head against the table and it landed with a thud, the wood felt cool against your angry skin. Your best friend, Connor and your mom quieted their joking banter and both looked over to you. You rolled your head to the side to meet their eyes before saying in a dull tone,  
“Do I look any different?”

“Nah babe, sorry.” Connor chuckled at the dejected sigh you let out, blowing some of your hair out of your face in the process. 

Connor reached over to smoosh your cheek against the table and laughed.  
“Come on y/n don’t be a Debbie Downer. Just think about our trip and it’ll make you feel better.”

You looked up at him, your cheeks starting to hurt a little from trying not to laugh in your current position between his big hand and the table. He was right. Connor and your mom were nice enough to surprise you this year with a trip to Korea. Granted this trip was solely to help Connor move into his new apartment and settle into school, but the trip was still a trip and you were excited for it nonetheless. 

You pushed his hand off and it landed next to your face with a thud.  
“I GUUEESSSS.” You said a little too loudly and a little too sarcastically with a shit eating grin.  
Connor shoved at your shoulder and you both laughed some more. 

“Guess I better go pack then, seeing as how I have nothing else to look forward to.” You said pushing up from the table and moving to walk down to your room, Connor trailing at your heels. 

Your mom and Connor really didn’t give you a lot of time to think, let alone pack for this trip. They had sprung it on you this morning, coupled with birthday pancakes with happy faces; you had chewed slowly looking from face to face in disbelief.  
You and Connor had always talked about going abroad for school. Only problem was that he actually liked the education system and you on the other hand did not, so walking in your best friend’s shadow didn’t seem like too bad of an idea. At least for the time being. 

You were excited to see the fashion, to try the food, and just bask in the atmosphere of the trendy city that was Seoul. Pretty much anything would beat the small town you grew up in and continued to reside. 

You and Connor spent the next hour picking out clothes and accessories to bring along. He of course had already been long packed, much to your advantage because you didn’t think you’d make the flight had you been left to your own devices on what to bring along.  
Once you both were done you wheeled your gigantic suitcase into the living room. It was closing in on midnight and your flight left in about three hours to accommodate for the time difference. You dabbled with the idea of taking a nap but ultimately thought against it for fear you wouldn’t wake up in time to leave. 

You turned to the large mirror in the living room hanging over the couch and inspected your face, once more looking for literally ANYTHING different. You found nothing.  
You hear Connor snort a laugh from the other side of the room where he was lounging on the loveseat. You shot him a glare. 

“I’m telling you y/n you need to stop thinking about it. It’s just gonna keep ruining your mood.” He said while nonchalantly flipping through Instagram. 

You spun on your heel to face him.  
“Connor that’s so easy for you to say, YOU HAVE YOUR MARK.”

Yes, Connor had gotten his very own soul mark when he had turned 21. It was a major deciding factor in him choosing to go to school in Korea. Him and his soulmate shared ‘soul tattoo’, where everything that was written on you or your soulmate’s skin would be transferred to the other person.  
Made it super easy to figure out specifics, lucky for him.  
Connor’s soulmate was a year older than him and was currently attending college at a prestigious school in Seoul. He had initially tried to get into the same school, but as much as Connor likes to learn he never said he was good at it. He did get into a decent school though, not too far away from his soulmate’s.  
This would be their first time meeting and he was over the moon about it.  
You hoped you wouldn’t end up a third wheel.

You parked yourself next to Connor on the loveseat and leaned heavily against him with a sigh.  
The hours passed by quickly as you two scrolled and commentated on his feed and soon enough it was time for you both to leave.  
Your mom and dad had taken you both to the airport to drop you off. Connor had said his farewells to his family earlier that day, and had opted to have them not come in case they caused him to get cold feet.  
As much as Connor wanted to see his soulmate he also hated to be leaving his family that same amount. 

You two hopped out of your dad’s SUV, chunky suitcase hitting the ground with a thud as you tugged it out behind you. You about faced to look at your parents, both you and Connor giving hugs and kisses goodbye before rushing into the airport.  
Your hometown was small so there would be a connecting flight out of LA to actually get to the Incheon airport. You prayed silently that your bags wouldn’t get lost in the transfer. This was the first time you had ever been on a plane for this long and apprehension was slowly ebbing its way into your mind.  
You shook your head, trying to brush it away as you and Connor checked your bags and trudged the small airport through security.

Connor babbled away next to you about your plans and what you would do first once the apartment got settled. Your trip was set to last just a little bit over a month. At first you were surprised at the length, thinking it was way too long for a vacation but then got to thinking about how more than likely half the time you and Connor would be spending unpacking, buying, and building furniture. You decided you were happy with the length of your stay, excited to try and make the most of your time there. 

You both had agreed that this definitely wouldn’t be your last, I mean come on your BEST FRIEND was going to be LIVING in a different country entirely. You WERE going back.

You and Connor had arrived at your gate just in time for boarding. The two of you walked briskly at the thought of holding up the line as you moved forward inch by inch to the door leading to the plane.  
You looked around you properly for the first time since getting there. There sure were a lot of people on this 3am flight but you guessed maybe that’s just how flights to LA were.

Your plane had open seating, which you were eternally grateful for because you WOULD be promptly taking a nap as soon as take off started, and you didn’t want to end up accidentally falling asleep on someone other than Connor.  
You slid down the row into the window seat. Connor had let you take this one with the promise that he would get the window seat on the way to the ‘ACTUAL destination’, as he had put it. 

You leaned your head on the cool glass. You couldn’t see much. Again, small town, but once you were up in the air you saw the nighttime lights of the city glint and grow further and further away the higher you got. You grabbed your carry-on our from under the seat in front of you and took out a comfy looking plush blanket and draped it over you and Connor as you settled in for your short nap in the not so long flight to LA.

______

You jolted awake to the lurch and jostle of the plane landing on the LAX tarmac. You looked over to Connor with what must have been a fear plastered on your face because he slapped his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing and bothering the others on the early morning flight.  
You shoved him with your shoulder and yanked your blanket off him and started to shove it back into your carry-on bag.  
This was it, now it was time for the big boy flight. You stepped out of the small tunnel into the vast expanse that was LAX and looked around.  
God why were there so many people here right now? You looked over to an information board and noticed it was now creeping on 4:30am. You nodded to yourself and guessed it probably wasn’t that weird for people to be at the airport at this time. What with all the business going on in this city. 

Connor grabbed your hand and dragged you in the opposite direction ushering your to pick up the pace because your connecting flight would be boarding in a couple of minutes. You tried to shuffle along faster but sleep tugged at your legs like weights and blurred your eyes in the bright lights of the new area. 

You both made it, but barely. Who’s idea was it to make a connecting flight like that all the way across the other end of the airport in which they’d landed!?  
You bent at the waist, hands resting on your knees trying to catch your breath from the sudden sprint Connor had broken out into halfway there. You heard him calling your name and looked up.

“Come on, what the fuck they’re waiting on you!”  
You realized then that he had already checked his ticket and was waiting in the small hallway leading to the airplane. You shot up straight and jogged over to the woman smiling sweetly. You were sure she didn’t get paid enough to be here this early in the morning. She scanned your ticket quickly and ushered your through to Connor. 

“Have a nice flight.” Your heard her say behind your with a slight accent. You turned your head and smiled, thanking her quickly. 

The two of you shuffled into the plane and were met with a handful of annoyed looks at you holding up the take off. You noticed quickly that because you were so late there were no longer any seats coupled together. You looked over to Connor who just shrugged and continued to the back of the plane in search of an empty seat.  
Following suit you shuffled a little ways behind him scanning the rows. 

Your eyes landed on a row with two seats already occupied. The person sitting in the middle was fumbling quickly with something in the bag next to him in an empty seat, surely trying to make it seem as if it wasn’t in fact empty.  
You stopped in front of him causing him to look up at you. You mustered up the warmest smile you could for almost 5am and pointed to the seat. 

“Would it be alright if I sat here, please?” You glanced around to find Connor seeing him sitting only a couple of rows back, also in the aisle much to his dismay.  
The only conscious occupant of the row looked as if he was about to refuse, raising his hand up in sort of an, ‘no I’m sorry gesture’, but you kept talking.

“My best friend is sitting over there and this is my first time on a flight like this, and I’m really nervous. If we can’t sit together I would feel a lot better if he’s at least close to me.”  
You put on your best puppy dog face and once again, “Please?”  
He let out a dejected sigh and moved his bag out from the seat and gestured for you to sit. You did a small jump and let out a strange happy noise before sliding into your seat, quickly kicking your carry-on under the seat in front of you. You turned to the man beside you once more and smiled sweetly.  
“Thank you again, I really appreciate this. I know the flight is really long but I really will try to not be a bother.”

He let out a low chuckle that startled you.  
“It’s alright, really.” 

You blushed hard at the sound of his voice, low and thick like honey. You whipped your head away from his gaze and stared down at your lap as you fumbled with your phone and nodded your head acknowledging his reply. 

The person beside your new row-mate stirred, shifting around to look at the man beside you. You tried your best to glance sideways without making it obvious, using your hair as a thin shield. You saw the once sleeping boy point to you with a confused look on his face. You turned your head slightly; just enough to see the one with the impossibly low voice shrug and turn back in his seat to get comfortable for the long flight. 

You averted your eyes quickly, busying yourself with retrieving your blanket once more. Only, it wasn’t there. You turned around in your seat to find Connor. He looked up catching your gaze as he was adjusting YOUR blanket. You shot him a dirty look and he stuck his tongue out at you in return. 

You twisted back facing the correct way with a humph as you searched for anything else to keep you warm on the flight that was sure to get cold quickly. You pulled out an oversized black hoodie and shimmied it over your head as best as you could without bothering the guy next to you. Once you were comfortable in your sweater and leaning back your locked eyes with his.  
You blushed like mad once more, wondering WHY on earth you were having this reaction. You couldn’t even see him, because a facemask was covering damn near his whole face!

“H-he took my blanket…” You stammered quietly before casting your eyes down once more to your phone. You heard him laugh quietly beside you as the plane finally began to take off. 

You popped in your headphones and played some rain ASMR on your phone and tried your best to sleep the majority of the flight through.


End file.
